1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to groundskeeping, and more particularly to apparatus for separating different areas of lawns and gardens.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various types of edgings have been developed to provide borders between adjacent portions of lawns, gardens, and wild areas. The edgings are intended to reduce the labor associated with creating and maintaining neat and attractive demarcations between different types of planted areas. At the same time, the edgings enhance the appearance of multi-use landscapes.
A common design of edging comprises a rather flexible elongated tube to which is integrally joined a generally planar web. The plane of the web passes through the longitudinal centerline of the tube. The web may be flat, or it may be formed with ridges or projections that extend angularly from it. The web is buried in a trench dug in the ground such that the tube lies horizontally along the ground surface and the web is located vertically in the trench under the tube. Stakes may be driven diagonally through the web at intervals into the adjacent ground. When the trench is backfilled, the soil in contact with the web ridges or projections, along with the stakes, helps to prevent the edging from heaving upwardly with the changing seasons. Prior edgings of the aforedescribed type are marketed by Oly-Ola Sales, Inc. of Villa Park, Ill., and by Drainage Industries of Appleton, Wis. Another example of a prior edging may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,644,658.
A disadvantage of the edgings described above is that digging and backfilling trenches requires the expenditure of considerable time and effort. Further, the disturbed soil tends to resettle unevenly, thus detracting from the attractiveness the edgings are intended to provide. In some applications, plastic film or fabric is staked to the ground along with the edging. Eventually the plastic pulls away from the edging web, leaving a gap therebetween. The gap soon fills with dirt, grass, and weeds.
Despite stakes and the ridges or projections on their vertical webs, the prior edgings do heave within the ground. Heaving causes the tubes to rise above the ground, where they are subject to damage from lawn mowers and the like. In addition, the webs become exposed to detract from the attractiveness of the edgings. To correct the heaving, the trench must be redug and the stakes removed and redriven to place the edgings back at their proper locations.
Somewhat similar to the prior tubular edgings are generally L-shaped edgings having a flat vertical wall with a horizontal web. A brick paver marketed by Oly-Ola Sales, Inc. of Villa Park, Ill., is one example of such an edging. Another example is an edging advertised by Kamb Raseneinfassung of Germany. The horizontal webs of the foregoing products can be notched to enable the vertical walls to bend. The horizontal webs are provided with holes through which stakes or the like can be inserted and driven into the ground to hold the edgings in place. The Oly-Ola brick paver and the Kamb Raseneinfassung edging require that the soil be graded to a level condition to properly support the horizontal webs. Considerable labor must therefore be expended to install those edgings.
Thus, a need exists for improvements in lawn and garden edgings.